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Death Knight
Blizzard's original death knight concept was that of an undead spellcaster unit which made its initial appearance in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Blizzard |accessdate=2009-06-20 |title=Death Knight}} This death knight could be more accurately described as a horseback-mounted lich rather than the traditional undead warrior. Years later, Blizzard introduced a new death knight hero-class unit in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and this second rendition was revised to reflect the general characteristics of the more traditional death knight design. To understand the key differences between these two different generations of death knight, see the "Types of death knights" section located further down this page. The death knight was later adapted as a prestige class within the Warcraft RPG and they were former paladin warriors. It is the first hero class in World of Warcraft and was introduced in the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Talents Death knight talents are split into 3 trees, each of which is fully capable of supporting either a tanking or DPS melee role: *'Blood:' This tree primarily amplifies the death knight's melee spells, weapons, and abilities; and has a prominent health-regeneration theme. *'Frost:' This tree has many control elements, with a strong critical-strike/bonus-damage theme, as well as several talents that improve physical-damage mitigation. *'Unholy:' This tree has a heavy focus on diseases and related abilities, as well as improving summoned minions. Also has AoE, spell damage shielding, and mobility-improvement sub-themes. Lore Death knight is the name of a class shared by several organizations of powerful necromancers. These orders share a few things in common, including riding horses with horned skulls and many of the same abilities. Shadows of Justice .]] Orgrim Doomhammer's first act as the new Warchief of the Horde was to crush the orc warlocks of the Shadow Council. He grudgingly spared the council's former master, Gul'dan, in exchange for the warlock's servitude; in turn Gul'dan promised to create a host of powerful new warriors to serve the Horde. After experimenting at length with the souls of the recently slain council members, Gul'dan successfully instilled the spirit of the Warlock Teron Gorefiend into the corpse of a fallen knight of Stormwind. Thus, the first terrifying death knight was born. Gul'dan transformed his other council members as well, creating a vast legion of unholy warriors who sowed chaos and fear throughout the land of Azeroth during the Second War. Following Gul'dan's desertion and death, part of the Horde, including the death knights, retreated through the Dark Portal to Draenor. Most of the surviving death knights disappeared after Draenor's destruction, though some of these death knights, along with Ner'zhul's other prominent spell casters, were later captured by the Burning Legion and transformed into liches. These liches were stripped of their free will by the demon lord Kil'jaeden and were reappointed into the service of his new servant, the Lich King, in order to better assist him with his task. These liches served as Scourge spell casting hero units in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Blizzard eventually unveiled the whereabouts of a powerful death knight who had escaped the fate of his kin, Teron Gorefiend, a malevolent abomination whose restless and embittered form now resides in the Black Temple of Outland. In a quest chain beginning with: "Teron Gorefiend, I am...", he deceives players with a fabricated account of history that tricks them into assisting him, and thus the deception ultimately results in his release from eternal imprisonment. Based on the logic that his entire story was a nothing more then a ruse, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that there may be numerous first generation death knights, like Gorefiend, who escaped the legion's capture and still exist in their original form. Champions of the Lich King Years after the destruction of Draenor, the immensely powerful Lich King created a new breed of death knights: malevolent, rune-wielding warriors of the Scourge. The first and greatest of these was the Lich King's chosen champion, Prince Arthas Menethil, once a mighty paladin of the Silver Hand, who sacrificed his soul to claim the runeblade Frostmourne in a desperate bid to save his people. Unlike Gul'dan's death knights, these dark champions do not possess free will and their minds are inexorably entwined with and dominated by the Lich King's vast consciousness. Despite the heavy costs of free will, some powerful mortals are intrigued by the promise of immortality and pledge their souls freely into the Lich King's service to achieve it. (Baron Rivendare is an example of this). In the years since Arthas shattered the Frozen Throne and merged with the Lich King, the power and fury of the death knights has only grown. Now these unrelenting crusaders of the damned eagerly await the Lich King's command to unleash their fury on Azeroth once again. Blizzard |accessdate=2009-06-20}} The Ebon Blade The Knights of the Ebon Blade is a faction consisting of the renegade death knights that broke free of the Lich King's control after the battle of Light's Hope Chapel (in other words, player-created death knights). Led by Highlord Darion Mograine, the Knights of the Ebon Blade have allied themselves with the Alliance and the Horde with the help of Highlord Tirion Fordring of the Knights of the Silver Hand, and have pledged to do their part in defeating their former master, the Lich King. Their main base is Acherus: The Ebon Hold, a former scourge necropolis in the Eastern Plaguelands. (It should be noted that the Knights of the Ebon Blade are not a separate player faction such as the Alliance and Horde. For the purposes of gameplay, player-created death knights still belong to either the Alliance or Horde depending on their race.) Notable death knights Horde * Teron Gorefiend (The first Death Knight created by Gul'dan) * Ragnok * Gaz Soulripper Scourge * Arthas Menethil (Former Lich King; slain by the forces of Ashen Verdict) * Alexandros Mograine (Former leader of the Four Horsemen; freed from undeath by his son) * Baron Rivendare (Former leader of Stratholme; leader of the Four Horsemen) * Lord Alexei Barov (Former owner of Caer Darrow, Brill, Southshore, and Tarren Mill.) * Trag Highmountain (Raised into undeath by the Orb of Ner'zhul) Ebon Blade * Darion Mograine (Highlord of the Ebon Blade) * Koltira Deathweaver (Horde representative) * Thassarian (Alliance representative) Types of death knights 1st Generation: Death knights of the old Horde A first generation death knight was essentially the soul, knowledge, memory, and personality of an orc necrolyte that was imbued into the reanimated corpse of a fallen knight of Azeroth. Unlike modern death knights of the Scourge, these ghoulish fiends were not battle hardened warriors; they were insidious necromancers who possessed superior intellect and tremendous magical power. They often favored the use of terror tactics and reanimated the corpses of enemy soldiers who fell in battle to serve them as mindless undead minions. These skeletal soldiers served to shield the death knight from enemy attacks, allowing them to unleash their deadly eldritch sorcery from range. 2nd Generation: Death knights of the Scourge A second generation death knight were amongst a group of fallen paladins whose souls were twisted and bound to the will of the Frozen Throne Warcraft III |accessdate=2009-06-20}}. Unlike death knights of the Old Horde, modern death knights are not limited to their use of ranged spell casting abilities. These former paladins are exceptionally skilled in the arts of physical combat. They retained the ability to cast death coil, increase allied movement, as well as raise the dead. They also gained the capacity to cast Death Pact to destroy a minion in return for health. In terms of relative strengths, modern death knights are more versatile than their first generation predecessors due to their ability to effectively engage enemies in the physical rigors of close quarters combat. However, both generations are equally destructive and terrifying to engage in the field of battle. 3rd Generation: Death knights of the Ebon Blade The third generation of death knights were part of a collaborated effort on the part of the Lich King to bolster Acherus: The Ebon Hold's legions before marching on New Avalon. However, these death knights only constituted a portion of the death knights under the Lich King's command. Knights of the Ebon Blade had the unique opportunity to assist in the culling of the Scarlet Crusade from the Plaguelands. In Wrath of the Lich King expansion the death knights are freed from the will of the Lich King and ally themselves with their respective, former factions. Working closely under the guiding blade of Highlord Darion Mograine and the bolstered Argent Crusade, these freed death knights have begun their march to Northrend. Death knights in Wrath of the Lich King are a new class mirroring their previous incarnations. While boasting powerful melee abilities, as well as plate armor, these warriors supplement their strength with dark magic. Calling upon a rune system of magic, the death knight may summon unholy, blood, and frost spells. Hero Class Overview The criterion for creating a death knight is the existence of a level 55+ characterhttp://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/deathknight/gameplay.xml on the player's account on any realm. The death knight combines martial prowess with dark, necromantic energies. Players might be familiar with the death knight from previously released Warcraft games — most recently, in the campaigns for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion, the former paladin Arthas became a death knight and wrought havoc across Azeroth before fusing with the spirit of Ner'zhul to become the Lich King. It is important to note that these particular death knights are based upon those created by the Lich King in Warcraft III, not those of orcish origin as seen in Warcraft II. Unlocking your death knight The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft. The death knight will start at level 55 in Acherus: The Ebon Hold over the Eastern Plaguelands, with multiple spells and abilities ready to use, and a set of gear. When you leave Ebon Hold, you will have a full set of gear ready for Outland. Through the death knight-specific quests in this necropolis and the surrounding areas, the character learns to master the power of the death knight and learns to use this new power for the will of the Lich King. Quests will take them outside the necropolis and into an area within the Scarlet Enclave. Players can create one death knight per realm, so long as they have a level 55 character already and the Wrath of the Lich King on their account. There are no racial limitations for creating your death knight. The Rune System The death knight uses a unique rune-based resource system to govern his/her spells and abilities. Three rune types exist: blood, frost, and unholy, each with an attached color and symbol. Using certain abilities exhausts one or more runes, starting a cooldown of 10 seconds. After the cooldown, the runes refresh. The death knight can use spells to turn a rune into a Death Rune, which can be used as a blood, frost, or unholy rune. In addition, whenever the death knight uses a rune ability against a foe, it builds up a certain amount of Runic Power. This Runic Power is only used by few abilities. All abilities that use Runic Power use a set amount, like Death Coil. Death knights cannot reallocate the number and type of runes - they are fixed to two runes of each type.http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8202574912&pageNo=1&sid=2000#10 The original player frame for death knights shown at BlizzCon was changed as feedback showed it was not ideal for displaying rune power for players. Runeforging is a profession available only to death knights, providing permanent weapon enchants. The enchants work just like the permanent weapon enchants provided by Enchanting, but are self-only and are designed specifically to benefit death knight class. These are independent of the rune resource system. Character's Role In general, the death knight can be considered a hybrid melee class that combines damage dealing and tanking, somewhat akin to Warriors. They wear plate armor and are able to dual-wield or use two-handed blade weapons (and maces, as revealed later). Like druids, they tank without shields. Their tanking mechanics involve high armor and a high chance to parry. Death knights tanks depend on a combination of high damage abilities, in addition to high threat abilities, such as Death and Decay and Rune Strike, to generate and hold aggro. Like every other class, the death knight has three different talent trees that enhance certain aspects of his or her specialties. However, the differences between the trees are not as clear-cut as those of other classes, both for PvP and PvE environments. Notably, death knights can tank or deal damage regardless in which talent tree they specialize, although a careful talent selection is still required to bolster their preferred role. Blood enhances the death knight's melee abilities and damage and vastly improves the ability to heal itself. As the name suggests, the special abilities it grants through talents are based on the Blood Runes. Blood also provides healing utility to party and raids and has some very useful buffs and debuffs that the death knight can cast on others, such as Hysteria and Mark of Blood, as well as providing a raid-wide 10% attack power buff (Abomination's Might). Blood is considered the tree for soloing. Frost enhances melee abilities and focuses on increasing both AoE and single target damage. It provides some very powerful direct damage abilities like Frost Strike and Howling Blast. Frost also enhances or provides useful emergency damage mitigation abilities like Icebound Fortitude or Unbreakable Armor and is thus considered the tree for tanking. Parties and Raids also benefit from this talent tree by gaining a 20% melee attack speed haste (Improved Icy Talons). Unholy enhances the death knight's diseases and damage over time spells, making them effective at AoE DPS. It also provides the death knight with a ghoul who is a permanent pet, a gargoyle guardian he or she can summon, and stronger diseases. Raid and party utility is granted by a 13% increased magic damage debuff Ebon Plaguebringer. Runeforging Runeforging allows the death knight to permanently enchant their weapon. These enchants act as a replacement for the stat enhancements provided by shields or ranged weapons, which death knights cannot wear. A weapon can have an enchant from either runeforging or from Enchanting, but not both together (the runeforging enchants are always better). A player will have to be near a runeforge in order to forge a rune onto their weapon. Once a weapon has been engraved with a rune it is impossible for the rune to be removed, though it can be changed at a runeforge. Also even if it is not soulbound, once a weapon has been engraved with a rune it is impossible for that weapon to be traded. Races The death knight class can be played by all races, with the following stats: Cataclysm changes Tanking as blood General preview (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both and at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled. ; (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike -- the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health. :This ability is meant to bring back some of the old flavor from when death knights could dispel heal-over-time (HoT) effects. It also gives the class a bit more PvP utility without simply replicating a Mortal Strike-style effect. ; (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike , Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can't reflect an ability, you won't be able to copy it either. Rune System Changes While we're satisfied with the way the rune system works overall, we're making a few major changes to the mechanics that will ultimately help death knight players feel less constrained. Here's the rationale behind the changes, followed by an explanation of how the new system will work. * In the current rune system, any time a rune is sitting idle, death knights are losing out on potential damage output. By comparison, rogues spend most of their time at low energy levels, and if they're unable to use their skills for a few seconds, that energy builds up and can be spent later, minimizing the net loss from the interruption. * A death knight's runes, on the other hand, cannot be used until they are fully active. If a death knight ever goes more than a few seconds without spending an available rune, that resource is essentially wasted. Because the death knight is pushing buttons constantly, it can be difficult to add new mechanics to the class because the player doesn't have any free global cooldowns to use them. We can't grant extra resources or reduced cost, because there is no time to spend them. Missing an attack is devastating, and it's impossible to save resources for when they're most useful. * Additionally, each individual death knight ability has a fairly low impact on its own, making it feel like most of the death knight's attacks are weak. The death knight's rotations are also more easily affected by latency or a player's timing being just a little off. At times, it feels like death knights aren't able to take advantage of their unique resource mechanic, which can diminish the fun. * The new rune system will change how runes regenerate, from filling simultaneously to filling sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. Essentially, you have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. (Haste will cause runes to fill faster.) Another way to think of this is having three runes that go up to 200% each (allowing extra "storage"), rather than six runes that go up to 100% each. * As this is a major change to the death knight's mechanics, it will of course require us to retune many of the class's current abilities. For example, each ability needs to hit harder or otherwise be more meaningful since the death knight is getting fewer resources per unit of time. Some abilities will need to have their costs reduced as a result. Talent Changes Next we'll outline some of the death knight talent-tree changes we're planning in Cataclysm. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you a sense of how we're intending each death knight spec to perform. * One of the biggest changes we're making is converting Blood into a dedicated tanking tree. While we feel that having three tanking trees was successful overall, it's less necessary in a world with dual-specialization. In addition, the current breakdown isn't as compatible with the Mastery-based passive talent-tree bonuses we want to add (see below). We'd rather spend time tweaking and balancing one good tanking tree rather than having a tank always wondering if they picked the "correct" tree out of three possibilities. * Blood seemed like the best fit for tanking. Unholy has always had a strong niche with diseases, magic, and command over pets. Frost now feels like a solid dual-wield tree with Frost magic damage and decent crowd control. Blood's niche was self-healing -- fitting for a tank -- as well as strong weapon swings, which could easily be migrated to Frost and Unholy. * Our plan is to move the most interesting and fun tanking talents and abilities to Blood. For example, you will likely see and remain, while will move over from Unholy. Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses ;Blood #Damage reduction #Vengeance #Healing Absorption: When you heal yourself, you'll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage. ;Frost #Melee damage #Melee Haste #Runic Power Generation: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing. ;Unholy #Melee damage #Melee and spell critical damage #Disease Damage: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree's play style. ;Vengeance: This new mechanic is designed to ensure that tank damage output (and therefore threat) doesn't fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will grant a stacking Attack Power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character's unbuffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have an Attack Power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Blood tree; these values will be smaller at lower levels. You only get the Vengeance bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Blood tree, so you won't see Frost or Unholy death knights running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to design tank gear more or less the way we do today; there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but the goal is that all four tanks will do about the same damage when tanking. We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues. }} Concept artwork Image:Death Knight06.jpg|Death knight concept art Image:Death Knight02.jpg|Death knight concept art Image:DeathKnightRaneman2.jpg|Death knight art by Raneman Image:DeathKnightRaneman.jpg|Death knight art by Raneman Videos See also *Death Knight builds *Death knight organizations *List of death knights *Death Knoob Patch changes * References External links : : : da:Death Knight es:Death Knight fr:Chevalier de la Mort pl:Death Knight Category:Death knights Category:Hero classes Category:Prestige classes Category:Wrath of the Lich King Category:WoW classes Category:Scourge